MMQB: Seahawks’ Dan Quinn the NFL’s next great head coach

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In Pete Carroll, the Seattle Seahawks have one of only three head coaches to win a college national championship and a Super Bowl title. But according to an article published Wednesday, the Hawks have another standout NFL head coach on their staff as well.

That man is second-year defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, according to MMQB’s Robet Klemko, who writes that the 43-year-old Quinn sits at “the top of football’s unofficial power ranking of future head coaches” — and is likely embarking on his last season with the Seahawks.

According to Klemko, Quinn would already be a head coach in the NFL if not for his commitment to Carroll and the Seahawks during their Super Bowl run last season. Quinn — who’d interviewed with the Cleveland Browns for their open position just after the regular season — put off a second interview until after the Hawks’ season was over.

That didn’t happen until after Super Bowl XLVIII, by which time the Browns had already chosen former Buffalo Bills DC Mike Pettine. And while Quinn more than proved his mettle with Seattle’s dominating defensive performance against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos’ record-setting offense in the Super Bowl, it wasn’t enough for him to get the top job with the Minnesota Vikings, either.

And that’s just fine with Carroll — at least for one more season.

“It was a coup to get him back last year, much less this year,” Carroll told Klemko. “But I don’t want to look at it that way. I want to help Dan get whatever job he wants because he’s a great coach.

“Our situation in the season worked against him. We played so late that people had to make decisions. Teams get antsy, seeing coaches start to get hired and they couldn’t wait for him, but he’s going to be a head coach very soon.”